Naya Rivera: How Ryan Murphy Got Her To Return To ‘Glee’

We can’t imagine the final season of ‘Glee’ without Naya Rivera’s character, Santana Lopez — but luckily, we won’t have to! ‘Glee’ creator Ryan Murphy has convinced the stunning actress to return to the show as a guest star, and now HollywoodLife.com can EXCLUSIVELY reveal how he did it!

Gleeks, you can breathe a sigh of relief because ALL of your favorite characters will officially be back for the sixth and final season of Glee. After rumors swirled that Chris Colfer had been fired and Naya Rivera would not be returning, it’s finally safe to say that every one of your McKinley High favorites will be on hand when the beloved show says its final goodbye.

Ryan Murphy On Naya Rivera’s ‘Glee’ Return — How He Got Her To Come Back

“Ryan Murphy wanted the Glee story to finish a certain way and Naya’s character was and is a part of his plan,” a source reveals to HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “He knew that things were very strained between Lea and Naya but he was convinced that the time away from the set and each other would ease the tensions between the two a little bit. And that looks like what exactly happened, most of the tensions are at bay but not fully gone.”

Things may not be perfect between Lea and Naya but thankfully Ryan has persuaded them to set aside their differences.

“Ryan didn’t want the drama to overshadow the final year of the show and they agreed,” the source adds. “Ryan played the ‘Do it for the cast’ and ‘Do it for Cory [Monteith]’ card and that is what worked and got Naya back in the fold. As for Lea and Naya sharing screen time, for the most part, they will not share many scenes together but it will be impossible to totally go cold turkey. They will work together again and they both promised they would be professional when that time comes.”

According to TVLine, Naya herself requested her demotion to guest star, so there’s no bad blood between her and Ryan Murphy.

Naya Rivera Returns For Final Season Of ‘Glee’

We are so glad that Ryan was able to bring these co-stars together and convince Naya to give her Gleeks more Santana. Her character has been a fan favorite since the very beginning, and it would have been such a shame to not have her there to finish out the series with her friends and co-stars.

Hopefully Naya will appear in several episodes so we can have plenty of amazing Santana moments!

What do YOU think, HollywoodLifers? Are you glad that Naya will be in the final season? Do you think that Naya and Lea will get over their feud? Let us know!